vgvindan wrote:Can someone please explain how 'SArnga' (in SArnga dhara) will be written in Telugu and Kannada?
In Sanskrit it is written as शार्ङ्ग -
In view of the virama after 'r' - it is not possible to codify Anusvara (sunna) in place of G-n. Can it be written as శార్ఙ్గ - ಶಾರ್ಙ್ಗ - ie without Sunna?

FYI: I have updated the transliteration scheme and transliterator to version 1.1. You can find information about it at http://arunk.freepgs.com/wordpress/cm-t ... lease-v11/ . The big change is support for the "grantha Sa" character i.e. the one for Siva Sakthi (the one you find in Slokam books).

Also I have "redressed" by arunk.freepgs.com website a couple of weeks ago: http://arunk.freepgs.com . It now follows a "blog" like format and so you can leave feedback (or ask questions) on various topics on the website itself.

A new release (v1.2) of the CM Transliterator and the Unified CM transliteration Scheme is now available at http://arunk.freepgs.com. This release has the following features/enhancements:
* Open/Save feature - now you can save you transliteration input to a file on your computer and open it later in the transliterator. Previously you had it do this manually by copying the contents to clipboard and pasting it into notepad or a text editor.
* More options for Sanskrit anuswara control (and some bug fixes in the previous anuswara control)
* Font control - you can control which font the transliterator should use for various languages
* Sanskrit avagraha symbol support.

Have a question for Arun:
Malayalam has the sound similar to 'Ta' but the T is pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the front teeth. So, for example, the word 'enTe' (meaning 'my' in Malayalam) uses this sound for T.
How does one represent this in the transliteration scheme?

Also, how does one represent the 'chandra-kalai'? e.g. the ending sound in 'pandu' (for ball)

I have not worked on this in general for a while. As per last status (from a while ago) Malayalam support is incomplete - at that time I remember encountering that Malayalam Unicode support had problems (as in buggy) which was the main problem. I do not know if it has been sorted out.

BTW, the "Ta" with the tip of tongue is pretty much how the first R of kaRRa in Tamizh should be pronounced (it is say nearer to tip) but in transliteration scheme it is "preferably" to say kaTRa since that is "more obvious" (i.e. from a more universal perspective). But kaTRa if spelt stricly using Tamizh phonetics would take a harder Ta (tongue rolled inside a bit) - the one that would be inappropriate for enTe in malayalalam, as well as kaRRa. People may remember srkris saying there was difference between kaRRa and kaTRa phonetically. This is it.

Long story short at this point it would have to be Ta. But given incomplete malayalam support, that isnt going to be a lot of help! Sorry!

The question of anuswara was discussed in this thread earlier. However, a doubt has been raised by Shri Sivaramakrishnan, a forum member, that in case of Malayalam the anuswara is to be invariably used at the end of a word - like चरणं and not चरणम्. I am of the opinion that virama म् should be used at the end of a sentence or words standing alone; in the middle of the sentence - as the ending of a word (चरणं) - and in certain compound words with prefix like 'saM', anuswara should be used. (saMyukta, haMsa etc - which is not a syllable)

I request views of members - not only with reference to Malayalam, but also Kannada and Telugu. This is required in regard to implementation in my blog posts.

In My opinion the sunna (anuswara) is used in Telugu and Kannada exclusively. In these two Dravidian languages the sunna replces all the corresponding nasal consonants (மெல்லின மெய்யெழுத்துக்கள் ங்,ஞ்,ண்,ந்,ம், ) which precede the corresponding consonants (க, ச,ட,த ப ) in Tamil. The nasal consonants have become redundant in Telugu and Kannada.
Though I can read Malayalam I have only partial knowledge in it. But I feel that Malayalam is similar to Tamil in use of these nasal consonants ങ്,ഞ്,ണ്,ന്, മ്. However these nasal consonants are joined with the corresponding consonants which follow these. About 50 years ago people used to join couple of letters while writing in Tami
In Indian Language converter which is one of the transliteration softwares which I use the words which you gave get typed as അണ്ണ, അന്ന, അമ്മ.

I checked up your blog spot at random . The Malayalam transliteration is fine. The sample is given below. മന്നിമ്പുമയ്യ . No anuswara/sunna is used. Among the Dravidian languages only Telugu and Kannada have borrowed Anuswara from Sanskrit and in the process lost the use of nasal consonants. In these two languages sunna takes different nasal sounds depending upon the consonantt which follows it.

Govindaswamy Sir,
This has been projected by a forum member by name Sivaramakrishnan. He says that in places like चरणं, sunna (anuswara) should be used and not as चरणम्. That is why I asked those who know Malayalam to confirm whether use of Sunna is acceptable in Malayalam. (In Tamil, as you know, there is no sunna principle. Malayalam has it.)

When I started my blog, I had placed my transliteration scheme of Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam for suggestions. It was then (2007) suggested that - as you said - only Telugu and Kannada use sunna in all places and not G, J, N, n and m. However, no one suggested about Malayalam then. All my blogposts follow this method only.

That is why I needed approval from people knowledgeable in Malayalam.
Thanks for the input. I shall await more response.